Tennessee athletics director Mike Hamilton resigns

Mike Hamilton speaks during a news conference announcing his resignation as athletic director at the University of Tennessee, Tuesday, June 7, 2011, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

In this file photo, UT Basketball Head Coach Bruce Pearl, center, and UT Athletic Director Mike Hamilton, right, address the media on Friday, Nov. 19 during a press conference where Pearl's eight SEC game suspension was announced at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Photo by Lauren Spuhler/Knoxville News Sentinel

KNOXVILLE -- In the week since University of Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton first offered to resign, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek has yet to compile a list of potential replacements.

That's expected to change very soon, maybe even before Saturday's Committee on Infractions hearing in Indianapolis.

And Cheek, who said Tuesday he expects to name a replacement within the next six to eight weeks, doesn't see the cloud of negativity surrounding one of the nation's most profitable athletic departments as a hurdle to putting UT in "a better place in the future than we are today."

"We're going to look for someone that can provide leadership both internally and externally to the athletic program. We're going to look for someone that can lead us to the next level," Cheek said at a morning press conference.

"This is that opportunity."

That opportunity arrived in abrupt but long-anticipated fashion at last week's Southeastern Conference spring meetings in Destin, Fla., when Hamilton, 47, first presented the idea of resigning to Cheek.

One day later, Hamilton reaffirmed his decision.

"When he brought the decision to me, I supported his decision," Cheek said.

An interim athletic director will be named later in the week, Cheek said. Because his resignation does not go into effect until the end of the month, Hamilton will still represent the UT athletic department Saturday and field questions about 12 major violations in men's basketball and football from the NCAA Committee on Infractions.

Hamilton said he will not head the ongoing search to find a new baseball coach.

Nearly eight years to the day when he was promoted to replace a retiring Doug Dickey, Hamilton cited numerous reasons, all of which circled back to the department's lingering investigation by the NCAA, for his decision to walk away from the university where he'd been an employee since 1992.

"I've never experienced more challenge or frustration in my 26 years of professional life than during the last 18 months," Hamilton said in his opening statement, which also quoted a Bible passage and touched on a February trip to Africa.

"I accept the responsibility for the things that have led to some of these challenges. Ultimately, I think today was inevitable based upon today's operating environment in college athletics."

Hamilton, whose resignation is effective June 30, will receive $1.335 million in buyout money over the next three years, according to his separation agreement and release.

That, and a number of other benefits, are all subject to revocation and penalty if he publicly disparages UT during that time frame.

"I want peace for the University of Tennessee. This is too great a place to not have that peace," Hamilton said. "We have been in a period of turmoil that needs to end, and if I could help end that turmoil by stepping aside, I thought that was important."

It wasn't always so rocky for Hamilton. But in 2008, he fired longtime football coach Phillip Fulmer midway through the 2008 season. Fulmer's replacement, Lane Kiffin, committed numerous secondary and major violations in his one season with the Vols before leaving for the same position at the University of Southern California. The damage was done to the storied football program by the time Hamilton hired current coach Derek Dooley as Kiffin's replacement in 2010.

By December 2012, when Fulmer receives his final paycheck from a $6 million buyout, UT will have paid $9,100,385.53 in buyout money to the five high-profile coaches Hamilton has fired.

For years, Hamilton was lauded for his decision to fire Buzz Peterson and hire Bruce Pearl as the school's men's basketball coach in 2005. The program reached new heights under the popular Pearl.

But Hamilton's demise and that of Pearl, who was fired in March because of his role in the major violations alleged against the men's basketball program, ultimately went hand in hand.